Reddit mentions of The Ultimate Banjo Songbook: 26 Favorites Arranged for 5-String Banjo

I came from a similar position and started learning banjo during my third year of college as a music major. Prior to banjo I had learned violin, guitar, and piano as well as a heavy amount of theory. I got a hand-me-down and was able to play foggy mountain at full speed in a few months. If you have fretting chops and know how to practice well, it is worth getting a reasonable intermediate banjo because of the fast learning curve.

There are acoustic electric banjos but it seems that most bluegrass bands use mics or pick ups so they don't lose the song quality from the acoustic.

For jamming, check out The Flatpick Apprentice Blog. He has some good backing tracks for standard tunes that you can jam on. Sort of a bluegrass version of the Aebersold disks.

I also chew my fingernails, and manage banjo fine--for scruggs style fingerpicks are an essential part of the instrument.

As for miscellaneous advice, I recommend practicing incredibly slowly with a metronome in order to get the mechanics of the roll down and have it be smooth. You want each roll to feel like one motion (rather than 8 individual plucks). Pick up The Ultimate Banjo Songbook--It has great tunes from the very beginner level up to advanced, while skipping over basic tunes that any reasonably skilled guitarist could already play on the first attempt. She also does a good job of compiling tunes that sound good at varying speeds.

There are millions of reasons to get into the banjo--I completely support your choice, it's an incredible instrument.

Edit* Added link for Flatpick apprentice

Honestly, I started with some of the stuff online. A guy has some good beginner level songs in tab in pdf here. they are pretty easy, and you can play them slow and still hear the melody. The first song I ever learned was amazing grace.

I also went through some of the beginner lessons from Banjo Hangout

There's lots of tabs there too, you can search for beginner difficulty.

Here's an online banjo tuner, if you can do it by ear

After I got through a lot of the easier tabs I could find on the internet, I got The Ultimate Banjo Songbook. It has a wide variety of difficulties in it, some are slow waltzes that you'll be able to play soon, and there's a couple that I can't play after 8 months.

And like I mentioned before, I'm in no way an expert, but since I recently went through the same ordeal, I wanted to give you some pointers.

Banjo-wise: Don't let your strings get too old, they'll start sound dull and you'll get a lot of pick noise. For awhile I thought I was getting worse, turned out I needed new strings.

Second, get picks that fit. I did not get picks that fit, and they were constantly shifting and falling off my fingers. With metal picks, you can adjust them a bit with hot water.